The Chinese toy excavator thread.

[sewer bill]

I did mean that literally.
My happy places are inventing and fabbing up fun things, and doing woodwork and building cabinets.
I look at that thumb picture and see several problems that I am not geared up to do. My friend Ben has a lathe and CNC mill and I pay him to do those things. That is HIS happy place.
On that stick, anywhere they are pivoting a bolt in a hole is going to hammer out over time. It needs a machined thicker boss welded on in a jig at the manufacturing stage of the game. For me to come back and beef those bores after the fact would be an unhappy place, LOL.

I like inventing too. I have several one off hydrojetting cutting tools in service at my work that I designed and fabricated that do a better job than anything you can buy off the shelf. One day I'll find someone who wants to go in on making that a business.

I would honestly be surprised if I get enough hours on it to slop a pin hole out. At least this versions pins have grease zerks. The early ones had no way to lube them.

It's definitely more an excavator shaped object than an actual excavator.

My test gauges came in the mail today so I'll be finding out soon if it's pushing 2000+psi on the thumb. Thinking about it now I might have to plumb in a selector valve so I can reduce the thumb to like 500psi on one relief valve and be able to switch it to the stock manifold at several thousand psi to run the attachments.

 

[HarleyHappy]

I love to resurrect and restore worn out things. I have the welders, a lathe and a knee mill.
I would love to do Camaro’s, GTO’s, Chevelle’s and such but being that a roller can be 20k or more, they are out of my league.
Instead it’s heavy equipment, one piece at a time, other than my other job.
I would look at one of these as a challenge, to reverse engineer a stolen design, to begin with. That thumb in the video, would be an easy fix.
While it would disappoint me that the design was **** poor, it wouldn’t surprise me, at that price point.
Do I try and buy American, of course but after dealing with motorcycles most my life, that buy only American attitude, left me long ago.
That is not a hill, I try and climb anymore.
I just try and be honest to myself and work with what I’ve got and can afford, as most of this, is a hobby for me.

 

[Grease Daily]

I hope this thread stays on topic and doesn't devolve into a political argument. Kudos to those who have already made good points on the pros/cons of buying Chinese vs. shelling out for actual machines (LOL).

I can speak from both sides of the argument and will give a spoiler up front that I quickly learned my lesson, which I already knew, which is that you get what you pay for.

I was a city dweller for 30 years and finally bought my dream 10 acre homestead earlier this year. I very quickly bought a Kioti tractor which I didn't know I needed and now use everyday. I do a lot of tree work, clearing and am doing a lot of building which means a lot of trenching, which means mini excavator. 3 months later I can't see ever doing without one.

I was blown away when I found a Rippa (1 ton) on Facebook for $6500 a few hours from me. I jumped, seemed like a no brainer when I was seeing commercial grade equipment the same size for 5 times the price. It took me all of 2 weeks to realize what a pile of garbage it was. Yes, it digs holes and does mini-ex types of things ok. But what about the day it doesn't? No manual, no parts support, no nothing. I got scared and listed it for sale. Oddly enough a guy who runs excavators for a living bought it. I bet he's sold it by now. He said he wanted to try one out.

I think it was about the second hour of breathing the un-muffled exhaust from a 13.5 gas engine under my ass that made me reconsider. That thing rattled some sense into me.

Sorry for the novel but I'll sum this up this way. If you need a deal and only plan to use a mini-ex very lightly then go for the Walmart Chinese one. If you want one to keep and actually use then buy once, cry once and you'll see how much better it is from every angle.

First machine, Rippa R10 pro ($6750 including delivery to my house)
Second machine, Hyundai Robex R17/Kubota powered, 2 ton, ($16k with 1k hours)

I would ideally like a 3-4 ton machine but I think I'd be backing up at that point. They destroy turf and gravel too badly for my use case.

 

[laidback01]

there was a IHI-40jx on my local craigslist last night for $7000. Isuzu diesel 3LC1 or similar. looked like hell. about 4T. Definitely going to need some work. I tried to get some friends to call/look. Nope, not shiny enough. I just don't get it. that was a hell of a buy - someone bought it this morning or last night, it's gone now. That's not Chinese stuff, but if all you are looking at is price, that's my advice, don't worry about shiny paint!

 

[skyking1]

I hope this thread stays on topic and doesn't devolve into a political argument. Kudos to those who have already made good points on the pros/cons of buying Chinese vs. shelling out for actual machines (LOL).

I can speak from both sides of the argument and will give a spoiler up front that I quickly learned my lesson, which I already knew, which is that you get what you pay for.

I was a city dweller for 30 years and finally bought my dream 10 acre homestead earlier this year. I very quickly bought a Kioti tractor which I didn't know I needed and now use everyday. I do a lot of tree work, clearing and am doing a lot of building which means a lot of trenching, which means mini excavator. 3 months later I can't see ever doing without one.

I was blown away when I found a Rippa (1 ton) on Facebook for $6500 a few hours from me. I jumped, seemed like a no brainer when I was seeing commercial grade equipment the same size for 5 times the price. It took me all of 2 weeks to realize what a pile of garbage it was. Yes, it digs holes and does mini-ex types of things ok. But what about the day it doesn't? No manual, no parts support, no nothing. I got scared and listed it for sale. Oddly enough a guy who runs excavators for a living bought it. I bet he's sold it by now. He said he wanted to try one out.

I think it was about the second hour of breathing the un-muffled exhaust from a 13.5 gas engine under my ass that made me reconsider. That thing rattled some sense into me.

Sorry for the novel but I'll sum this up this way. If you need a deal and only plan to use a mini-ex very lightly then go for the Walmart Chinese one. If you want one to keep and actually use then buy once, cry once and you'll see how much better it is from every angle.

First machine, Rippa R10 pro ($6750 including delivery to my house)
Second machine, Hyundai Robex R17/Kubota powered, 2 ton, ($16k with 1k hours)

I would ideally like a 3-4 ton machine but I think I'd be backing up at that point. They destroy turf and gravel too badly for my use case.

you get good at picking dryer times of the year, and laying out plywood with bigger machines. If you have really fine topsoils they are the worst and don't spring back as well. If you get some 18" wide rips of 1" form ply they spread out and even out the forces from a 35.
This is a pristine lawn at the boss's house. I had to jump down in there over this little wall and had the 6x6 steel sheet for landing. Note the plywood and dunnage for the bucket assisted spin on the sheet and over the wall.




Get the sheets and plywood up quickly.




No harm no foul. The only thing I had them do is halt the irrigation that week. Once I got in there they watered it and then dried it back out for the trip out.
The next fun was jumping up on that little curb and dunnage and plywood to protect the pool edge overhang.

 

[sewer bill]

there was a IHI-40jx on my local craigslist last night for $7000. Isuzu diesel 3LC1 or similar. looked like hell. about 4T. Definitely going to need some work. I tried to get some friends to call/look. Nope, not shiny enough. I just don't get it. that was a hell of a buy - someone bought it this morning or last night, it's gone now. That's not Chinese stuff, but if all you are looking at is price, that's my advice, don't worry about shiny paint!

I would have snagged that.

 

[92U 3406]

Neighbour down the road has one of those little Chinese tracked skid steers. For what it is and what it costs it's perfect for little jobs around the property. He's lent it to me a couple times and it's saved me hours of work. For the amount it gets used it's really not worth it to shell out $20k to $30k on a name brand unit.

I 100% agree though these machines definitely aren't high enough quality that I'd trust my livelihood with it if I were a small landscaper or contractor.

 

[laidback01]

I would have snagged that.

Yeah, it crossed my mind to run up and get it. but... I really don't need yet another project. Just this past wednesday, we picked up a used Kioti DK4510, there's getting to be too much stuff here. I'm going to have to sell off something soon..

 

[DDoug]

there's getting to be too much stuff here. I'm going to have to sell off something soon..

Moving the magnetic north pole are we ?

Join the club.

 

[sewer bill]

Small update. At 12 hours of time on it now much more comfortable operating it moved a lot of logs and removed some small trees.

I'm sure you'll all find this hard to belive but I did manage to bend the thumb too.

 

[laidback01]

My neighbor bought one of these 2000lb jobs. I'll have to point him at this thread. He's got a fixed thumb, but is desiring a hydraulic one.